Holding Peace

Subhashis Mittra

The Border Coordination Conference between the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB)—an annual feature—this time too discussed various issues related to international boundary management. But this time the meeting took place under the shadow of at least half a dozen incidents of exchange of fire between BSF personnel and Bangladeshi cattle smugglers armed with illegal weapons barely days before the meeting.

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina with Chief of Indian Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi

Just ahead of the commander-level meeting in July, there were three back-to-back incidents reported at the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal. In two incidents, cattle smugglers armed with sharp-edged weapons tried to snatch the weapons of BSF personnel but were foiled. The BSF recovered cattle and swords from the smugglers.

The smugglers and other criminals have been taking advantage of the BSF’s non-lethal weapons policy in dealing with intruders at the Bangladesh border. On June 9, a cattle smuggler was shot dead when a group at the Kalamchera border outpost in Tripura tried to snatch weapons from a BSF constable after entering 150 metres inside Indian territory. At the same place on June 2, smugglers had assaulted a BSF jawan and fled with his weapon.

In another incident, Bangladesh smugglers armed with spears and swords entered the Indian side and tried to attack the BSF jawans near Malda in north Bengal. When they did not retreat even after BSF threw stun grenades, the force resorted to firing after which the smugglers returned to Bangladesh.

The high-level meeting decided to share real-time intelligence, increase joint patrolling and identify sensitive and vulnerable areas to check smuggling and address security challenges along the India-Bangladesh border.

After the conclusion of the meeting, BSF Inspector General (South Bengal Frontier) Ayush Mani Tiwari said the dialogue has provided an important opportunity to enhance security and cooperation along the border. “We are confident that this dialogue will result in curbing border crimes and strengthen the security of both the countries,” he said, noting that both the countries understood the need to strengthen the security at the border so that il